Page 33 of Lovewell Lane (Honeyfield Dreamers #1)

Derek

I hesitated as we breached the entrance of the aquarium. The air smelled faintly of salt with a hint of chlorine. Voices echoed around the cavernous lobby we were standing in. It was much cooler inside compared to the humid Georgia heat that we hadn’t been able to escape back home.

Tessa’s small hand tightened around mine. She was just as skeptical of crowds as I was.

“Should we go find the otters first or save that for last?” Margo asked, stepping ahead only to turn around to face us.

She looked at ease. There was a softness to her smile that made me forget, if only for a second, where we were. She looked around the room at the different pathways we could take, already planning out our day in her head.

I looked down to Tessa to gauge her reaction to the question. She shrugged and looked at me— expecting me to decide, even though I was just as clueless.

“What do you think?” I asked Margo.

Margo bit her lip and crouched beside Tessa. “Have you ever touched a stingray before?” Tessa shook her head. “Let’s do that first. I want to see if your dad is brave enough.”

I furrowed my brow. Surely, this place didn’t actually let anyone touch a stingray. Wasn’t that what killed Steve Irwin?

I was wrong.

“Come on, don’t be a chicken,” Margo teased. Her hand was underwater in the shallow pool of stingrays while I stood and stared at her like she’d lost her mind. Because clearly, she had.

I watched her successfully pet one of the small rays and looked around at the other families and kids surrounding the pool. Parents and kids all around were smiling and laughing while being up to their elbows in a tank filled with rays.

I’d caught plenty of animals in my day. Snakes, chickens, goats, you name it.

All that I’d learned from doing that was don’t fuck with animals unless you knew what you were doing.

Rays weren’t in my wheelhouse, so I didn’t want to mess with it.

But Margo dared me. I had to. I couldn’t let the city girl outdo me.

No one else seemed cautious, so I put my hand in the water and tried it.

A small gray ray swam in front of me. I reached out for it and let it brush against my palm. Tessa let out a shriek of giggles as I made a face at the feeling.

“Do you want to try, Tess?” I asked, pulling my arm out of the water and holding it away from my body.

“Here, we can do it together,” Margo said. She grabbed Tessa’s hand and held it in hers under the water. They both burst into a fit of more giggles as a ray brushed against their hands and Tessa pulled her hand out of the water in an instant.

Touching strange creatures was just the beginning.

Tessa got braver after each experience. As we moved through the aquarium, Tessa pointed out anything and everything she recognized, and Margo made sure to read the plaques out to her with the names of animals she didn’t know along with their fun facts.

Once we’d gotten through all of the pools of smaller animals, we came across the otter exhibit.

There was a small crowd in front of the glass, blocking Tessa’s view, so I put her up on my shoulders as we got closer. “Look, Daddy!”

“I see them, wow,” I said. Tessa’s hands rested on mine. She kicked her feet against me excitedly, and I couldn’t contain my smile at her excitement.

“They’re so cute,” Margo murmured, her voice just loud enough to catch.

I turned to respond, but an older woman barged between us, oblivious. My hand reached out without thinking— I hooked two fingers through the belt loop of Margo’s shorts and gently tugged her back to our side.

She looked at me gratefully before brushing her arm against mine.

We continued through the aquarium, lingering on the less crowded exhibits.

Tessa proved that she knew her stuff, there were so many animals that she named without even reading a plaque.

Her favorites were the seahorses. We stared at one tank for twenty minutes, trying to find all of the tiny seahorses that blended in with the coral they were wrapped around.

As our last hoorah, we went to the whale shark exhibit.

Margo was convinced it was the big finale and would blow our minds.

We walked into the big tunnel, and I literally stood still.

The entire tunnel was made of glass, except for the ground beneath our feet.

And surrounding us was a bigger fish tank than I could have ever imagined.

It looked like we were standing beneath the ocean.

“There’s one of them,” Margo pointed out. Tessa and I followed her line of vision and Tessa gasped.

“Wooooah,” she gawked. “That’s a whale shark!”

“Mhm,” Margo murmured. “It’s really breathtaking isn’t it?”

Tessa and I both nodded. I stood back for a minute, watching them watch the tank together. Their necks craned up to be able to see all of the fish swimming above them. Tessa’s hand reached for Margo, and Margo subconsciously slid her hand into Tess’s.

I wasn’t sure what shifted. Maybe it was the light or the impossible scale of the creatures around us. Maybe it was the way Margo instinctively matched Tessa’s needs. Or maybe it was just me, finally slowing down enough to notice.

Whatever it was, something settled into place inside my chest. A quiet realization.

Not wanting to miss out on this moment any longer, I stepped up next to them and glanced at Margo. She caught my eye and gave me a soft smile. My fingers brushed against hers cautiously. Her hand found mine, and I intertwined our fingers before giving her hand a squeeze.

She didn’t let go.

And neither did I.

-

Tessa’s eyes blinked slowly as I brushed her hair out of her face. She’d had a long, tiring day, and I was ready for us both to get a good night’s sleep. This was the first day in months that I’d taken off since summer began, and I made a promise to myself to ensure I did it more often.

Running our business was important, but Tessa would always come first.

It was easy to lose sight of that in the day-to-day. We spent so much time together that I forgot to make time to have special days like this. We needed more of these.

Tessa wrapped her arms around the plush seahorse that I bought for her at the aquarium. “Did you have fun today?” I asked softly.

She hummed in response. “The otters were so cute. And the whale sharks were so big,” she said sleepily. I was half convinced she was sleep talking.

“Me too,” I murmured. “It was a great day.”

“Do you think Margo had fun?”

I smiled and let out a breathy laugh. “I’m sure she did. She seemed very happy.”

Tessa gave me a sleepy smile and nod. “I like when Margo does things with us.”

“I know you do,” I said, brushing her hair back softly. “I do too.”

I sat there for a beat longer than I needed to.

Listening to the sound of Tessa’s breathing evening always calmed me, it was something that I did every night when she was a baby, and I was desperate for any sense of calmness.

When I was sure she was asleep, I stood and quietly left the room, closing her door behind me.

The hallway was dimly lit. Only the soft yellow glow from the kitchen spilled across the floor, stretching long shadows toward my feet. I padded down the hall, barefoot, shoulders tight with nerves.

Margo was standing at the sink, her hands submerged in soapy water. The clink of dishes echoed lightly off the tile. The silence felt like a warm blanket on us. Sometimes, when it was just me, the silence of the big house felt like it was swallowing me whole.

She didn’t look up when I entered, but I knew she heard me.

I leaned against the doorway and watched her for a moment. Her movements were slow and methodical. Her hair was down now, no longer held up by the clip that it was in all day today. Her shoes were by the back door, kicked off carelessly.

She looked like she was right at home.

And I’d never wanted anything to be more true.